Oh, why not?

Matthew Guerrieri's Proustian quiz:

1. Name an opera you love for the libretto, even though you don't particularly like the music.

Stephen Paulus' The Postman Always Rings Twice.

2. Name a piece you wish Glenn Gould had played.

Basic Training, Lee Hyla.

3. If you had to choose: Charles Ives or Carl Ruggles?

Ives, but I love Ruggles' Sun-Treader.

4. Name a piece you're glad Glenn Gould never played.

Trois Gymnopédies, Erik Satie.

5. What's your favorite unlikely solo passage in the repertoire?

The piccolo solo that ends Carter's Symphonia.

6. What's a Euro-trash high-concept opera production you'd love to see? (No Mortier-haters get to duck this one, either—be creative.)

Parsifal in Vegas.

7. Name an instance of non-standard concert dress you wish you hadn't seen.

Pass; we don't get much of that around here. One I'm glad I did see was Dr. John Boda wearing a scarlet tux to play on my doctoral recital.

8. What aging rock-and-roll star do you wish had tried composing large-scale chorus and orchestra works instead of Paul McCartney?

Ugh. Jeez. Hell, I don't know. Crap. The guy that sang for the Ides of March, I guess.

9. If you had to choose: Carl Nielsen or Jean Sibelius?

The Finn.

10. If it was scientifically proven that Beethoven's 9th Symphony caused irreversible brain damage, would you still listen to it?

It doesn't?